The Grand Hotel – Broadway Sydney

The Grand Hotel’s short but huge claim to fame as a venue for bands came about in 1977. The publican Dennis was approached with the proposal of opening the doors to a new style of music for that time, Punk Rock.

The Oxford Funhouse at Taylor Square Sydney had just closed its doors to Punk Rock bands and this left a huge hole as there weren’t any other venues putting on Punk Rock bands at the time. Johnny Dole and Peter Mullany from Punk Rock band Johnny Dole & The Scabs decided to investigate other pubs around Sydney, to see if any would be interested in opening up a new venue for Punk Rock. After doing the rounds for weeks going from pub to pub, looking for one that would give this new music a chance and with door after door being closed in their faces, they were about to give up.

It was decided to take Ray Walsh, Johnny Dole’s brother along to act as manager to give them a higher profile. Arriving at the Grand Hotel, they entered to speak to the publican.

The publican, Dennis was in his mid 30’s and Punk Rock was always going to be a hard sell to anyone. Ray and the boys, undaunted and determined to give it their best shot to convince this gentleman of it’s worth, started with their pitch. When they had finished to their surprise Dennis was open to the idea!

There was a spare room in the back of the pub that had a bar and wasn’t being used so Dennis said “Why not, it might mean some extra revenue and what harm could it do?” The agreement was, Dennis would supply someone to run the bar, (the lovely Yvonne) and the night manager Fred was in charge of keeping an eye on things. As long as the “décor” was untouched, posters on the walls were OK but the rest had to be left as it was, then bands were welcome to play. Punk Rock now had a new venue and the future was looking up.

The room’s capacity was approximately 120 people and they came in through the main entrance on Broadway and the look on the patron’s faces when some of the Punk Rockers walked in was priceless. It also had a door in Bijou Lane behind the pub used for deliveries. The bands could also use this door to load in and out and just before you entered the main room there was another smaller storage area where the bands could leave their gear before going on or after finishing their set.

Unfortunately there was no stage and money not being in great abundance a stage was hastily erected from pallets and packing crates with a large piece of second hand carpet thrown over the top which was kindly donated by the drummer’s parents as they had just re-carpeted their home!

Bands had to supply their own PA and Lights and most times it was just a vocal PA cranked up as loud as it would go, with feedback adding to the atmosphere. Most bands didn’t have lights, but there was one poor unfortunate light just above the stage that regularly got abused, usually by Johnny Dole!

Ray (now official manager for the band) and members of Johnny Dole & The Scabs were handling the bookings and each week professional posters were ordered and put up around Sydney. To help cover these running costs and to hopefully have some money left over for the bands there was a cover charge of $1.00 usually for 2 bands.

So on Friday 16th September 1977 Johnny Dole & The Scabs supported by Tommy & The Dipsticks opened the doors of the Grand Hotel for the first time to Punk Rock and would go on to have many of the well-known Punk Rock and New Wave bands play there till it closed its doors late 1979.

Unfortunately the Grand Hotel no longer exists, being torn down and replaced in 1986 by a multi storey office complex, with retail shops below. Some of the original structure remains in the back lane but from the front it is totally unrecognizable from its original look.

* Although The Leftovers, from Queensland appear on the poster above and were booked to play, they didn’t actually play at the Grand Hotel. Unfortunately they arrived without any equipment and the support band, Shock Treatment were understandably reluctant to lend theirs. Shock Treatment ended up doing the night on their own which exhausted their repertoire, so Johnny Dole & The Scabs who were not expecting to play that night did a set to help out. Here is a review of that night which appeared in the Fanzine Pulp Issue #2 – 26th November 1977.

SHOCK TREATMENT by James B.

Grand Hotel, Sydney, Sept. 23

Shock Treatment ploughed through one set, a break, another set and another break. As the exhaustion was beginning to cause strain (due to the fact that there was no formal support band) Johnny Dole and the Scabs hit the stage. It would be highly misleading and grossly unfair to make any comments on the Scabs’ set as they were not expecting to play, nor were they physically prepared for the event. In fact, they all looked pretty out of it.

Nevertheless, they slammed into some prime grunge-metal jamming which was quite amazing in contrast to the more technical flash of Treatment. One of their dole-queue anthems, ‘Lucky Country’, got the full treatment and was incredible. A very promising outfit.

Ah, World War IV was the first band I worked for. But I got sick of the smack and pills. Couldn’t bring myself to get the guitarists Strat out of hock to do gigs. Great gigs, heaps of energy in that place! I copped shit there one time when we were loading in. I had a Crystal Cylinders surf shirt, cut off army pants, long hair & a beard. The punters didn’t like me at all!! This one guy fronts me with all his “You’re not fuckin’ punk” bullshit. He didn’t know what to say when I looked him in the eye and said “Where’s the anarchy in looking the same as everyone else?” The gig went off and all was forgiven but the band had some strong words about my dress sense! LOL!

Hi Recko,
World War IV were one of my favourite bands from the Grand Hotel days so we may have even bumped into each other? I remember the carry on about “how” to look like a Punk and I always said what was relevant in England didn’t apply here. I mean 3 of the Scabs had day jobs!! Your comment about “Where’s the anarchy in looking the same as everyone else?” is classic, I wish I had said that!!
Cheers.

I used to go along to their rehearsals and then turned up at (I think) their first gig. They played OK but I knew they were better. From then I tried to take all the zillion things that need to be done prior to the gig off their minds by doing them for the guys. That’s what started it all for me. We probably did run into each other over the years. When I said that to that guy he looked confused and then left me alone. But we always gave each other a nod afterwards, lucky he was a big bastard!

I had a band called the Parisites which played at the Grand early 1979. It consisted of Chris Toms (Chris Cross) on bass, Nya Murray on electric violin, Peter McGrath (V2) on vox, myself on guitar and I believe it was the Urban Guerillas drummer the first time around and another borrowed drummer the next (after Urban Guerillas went to UK). Can’t remember exactly when these gigs were, but sometime after Easter and before June/July when the Queensland contingent of the band (Nya, myself and Peter) returned to Brisbane, where I ended up in a late incarnation of the Leftovers (the band that played at the Grand sometime earlier)

This article was written about my time in Johnny Dole & The Scabs and running the Grand Hotel. I left the band in early 1978 and have little knowledge of the bands that played there after I left the band so people like you can help with building the list and it’s appreciated. If you think of any others please let me know.

I used to go to the Grand. Fav. Band Kaos. They were great. “World wasn’t built in 7 days, that’s what the stupid bible says, bible’s got no good uses, just a book of stupid excuses”. Used to knock the ouzo and cokes, dirt cheap in those days.

Their roadie used to come as a customer to my work. Said he was gonna start a Ska band. Don’t know if he ever did. Nice guy though.

The Kelpies played there one or two times right at the end of the Grand. One of the shows I destroyed my kit and Jimbo said we’ll do one more and I had to gaff tape it back together to finish. A line of speed from Monique was $5 and the cans were metal (not crushable on ones forehead) “time of your life huh kid”